Best Buy Microsoft Consultant

Do you like your job? Does working at a huge chain like Best Buy feel kind of soulless at times?

Asked by Terri over 10 years ago

Thanks for your question! At times, it does feel kind of like Blue Shirts are just drones repeating what they're told to say, but I wouldn't say it's a 'soulless' position. When you are having meaningful one-on-one conversations with customers, you tend to see a different side of your job, one where you can actually make someones life better with the technology you supply them with. It's for these occasional experiences that I do love my job. Although recently, I don't know if it's the cold weather or something, but customers have been a lot more pushy, haha.

Are the Geek Squad guys typically competent in your experience?

Asked by beyo1988 over 10 years ago

I've never had any problems with the Geek Squad on the retail end. Usually, any imcopetencies come from the Corporate Agents, who are the ones handling customer phone calls, remote accesses, and scheduling appointments. They tend to work from home, so their level of interest in the task at hand tends to be lower.

Retail end Geek Squad agents are usually highly trained, at least from what I've seen in my district. 

Do Best Buy sales reps get compensated on commission and is it really competitive to 'bag' a customer who looks like he's going to buy a thousand dollar laptop?

Asked by Gino over 10 years ago

Best Buy customer specialists are not payed on commission, for the most part. Generally, when we meet or exceed our sales numbers, we get what is called "Path to Excellence" points, which we can use to redeem items in the Rewards Gallery (usually sweatshirts, waterbottles, etc.) So the answers to your question is yes - it is usually pretty competitive to 'bag' the thousand dollar customers who can help us meet our numbers.

Are you allowed to recommend outside or DIY services to customers instead of the Geek Squad? The markup on their services is crazy: they wanted like $70 to reinstall Windows from my own disk.

Asked by BaronvonA over 10 years ago

Absolutely not. Our "Standard Operation Protocol" specifically states that if a Best Buy employee is to "refer actions that can be performed by Geek Squad, or any Best Buy affiliates, or is to perform services that Geek Squad, or any Best Buy affiliates, will result in disciplinary actions leading up to, and including, termination of employment."

Also - Geek Squad stand alone services are typically marked up as a selling tool for Best Buy employees to leverage the tech support membership that is available from Geek Squad. Nearly all the services, such as the one in your case, become free when you have the membership.

Is there any benefits that a Microsoft Consultant receives compared to just a computer sales consultant?

Asked by Andrew over 10 years ago

Here is a list of what Microsoft Consultants receive:

• Lenovo 11.6 Yoga (company owned, seeded and tracked.)
• Surface RT 32 GB (company owned, seeded and tracked.)
• Fancy teal shirt.

• Travel to a 3 day induction conference
• Extensive training on all Windows features, on a monthly basis.
• At least 2 conference calls a month with Corporate, and every other M.C.

What is the typical career progression from entry-level stockboy up through store manager and how many months or years do you spend at each stop?

Asked by JenD over 10 years ago

Hey ,
I can't afford a surface pro 3 , and I was wondering if you guys will be willing to give it away for free

Asked by Abhinav about 9 years ago